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Hi All: I'd like to further address current workflows in relation to the updating of the roster. Once yearly, the PDC asks for updates from the community through ARLIS-L. After they have been received and culled, they are sent onward to our web administrator, Nedda Ahmed, who adds this content. That window occurred this year during the site upgrade and instead of taxing Nedda with the double work of updating two sites, the PDC decided to hold back on the call. This will occur soon, however. And the new page already looks amazing within the gorgeous new site, even with older information as placeholder. That said, many of those internships stay on the roster, year after year. Kind regards, Sarah From: ARLIS/NA List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Falls, Sarah E. Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2014 6:02 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [ARLIS-L] ARLIS/NA and internships Dear Colleagues: As the conversation this afternoon has turned to the role of ARLIS in helping LS students choose internships and there have been many calls for vetting and other actions, I think that we need to think more broadly about the process of choosing internships in graduate education for arts and librarianship. Liz, Heather, Elizabeth et al, thanks for raising these issues to us today. First, a little background--as it stands now, the roster is static page of text on our website that was organized as a helpful place for those wishing to apply for the internship award. Unfortunately, it has not been updated for 1.5 years due to the recent conversion to the new website. In looking at the institutions listed, some 75, only 3 entities are not either highly-regarded museums or libraries (or museum libraries) in the US and Canada. One of these three is the Bridgeman Art Library, a strong vendor partner to our community, and the other two were small galleries with defined needs that clearly mapped to librarian skill sets. It would appear that those in the PDC who posted these opportunities did some level of vetting. While it may not seem fair that students should work for free, internships with low stipends and no pay have been a part of a system of both mentoring the up-and-coming and profiting from young talent. There is commodity and exchange here. Many of us have come through this system, and many of us who invested the time and money into these internships profited from work with strong mentors in amazing collections and gained behind-the-scenes access to museums and libraries. Learning how to work within a professional team of staff and faculty is also a critical literacy that can only be gained through practical work experience. But is providing a static list of addresses a good way to teach professional literacy (i.e. how do I choose an internship that is credible and good for me professionally?) In terms of criteria of internships, some of this needs to fall back on LS programs. It is critical that LS students work with their program advisors or internship coordinators to both identify and structure their internships. The internship provider, should have supervisors who work with the program advisor to articulate the job duties and report on progress, both to the intern and to the advisor. That way, internships that don't seem valuable can be avoided. And it is always best to work with well-established annual programs for interns. There are many who finish their education and have a gap before finding work. Some choose to intern (volunteer) during that time period to gain more experience. They should think about skill set deficits and work to fill those with specific volunteering. During this time of economic downturn and shrinking payrolls for libraries and humanities fields, we rely on the talent of interns to advance many projects. This will likely not change, particularly as we are at the juncture of two low paying fields due to institutional funding. But where we can help our members is in building a professional literacy around making strategic career moves. As stated above, the Professional Development Committee already vets our internship listings. How they can be more responsive to this issue, as with others in our profession, is to create programming. A webinar or online course in "choosing the right internship" is likely a great route and would help with the professional literacy issue. With the exciting technological changes of our new website, where the roster information can be updated more easily, and the Learning Management System that we have alongside our virtual webinar and conference content, we will have new possibilities of addressing the needs of Society members. The PDC works with multiple subcommittees to present information to Society Members, so through Mentoring and Education, this can easily be addressed. Please feel free to let me know if you have further questions or thoughts, either via ARLIS-L or by emails. Best regards, Sarah [The Ohio State University] Sarah Falls ARLIS/NA Education Liaison Head, Fine Arts Library, Assistant Professor University Libraries 040L Fine Arts Library, 1871 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43210 614-247-2345 Office [log in to unmask]<https://email.osu.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=LSYgyw60FkCnRd4iFkdo4nAOtzcU4dAIt7YwVnZ0Hnnmrqg0ga-kpYs6qGr-RY0waYTRGQtVGqQ.&URL=mailto%3amurphy.465%40osu.edu> library.osu.edu<https://email.osu.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=LSYgyw60FkCnRd4iFkdo4nAOtzcU4dAIt7YwVnZ0Hnnmrqg0ga-kpYs6qGr-RY0waYTRGQtVGqQ.&URL=http%3a%2f%2flibrary.osu.edu%2f> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~